Today, working people across the country, from fast food workers to adjunct professors, are striking and demonstrating in favor of a $15 minimum wage—the largest demonstration in the history of the Fight for $15 movement, which has invigorated the debate over raising the minimum wage and helped make a $15 minimum wage and a union the standard for people who care about an economy that works for everyone.

President-elect Donald Trump succeeded, in part, through an appeal to working class voters who have seen their incomes stagnate or fall for decades, the jobs they depended on moved off-shore, and their hopes for a secure retirement dwindle.

President-elect Donald Trump succeeded, in part, through an appeal to working class voters who have seen their incomes stagnate or fall for decades, the jobs they depended on moved off-shore, and their hopes for a secure retirement dwindle.

Annual inflation-adjusted earnings of the top 1.0 percent of wage earners grew 2.9 percent in 2015, and the top 0.1 percent’s earnings grew 3.4 percent, according to our analysis of the latest Social Security Administration wage data.

This post originally appeared in Democracy.
This election will be different, not only because of the stark departure of Donald Trump’s candidacy from any usual political convention, but also because the current economic debate is unlike any in recent memory.

Rep. Kurt Schrader has introduced legislation (the Overtime Reform and Enhancement Act, or OREA) that would undermine the Department of Labor’s new rule that expands the overtime rights of salaried employees who earn less than $47,476 a year ($913 per week). The bill would harm the low- and middle-income Americans whom the Labor Department's rule is designed to help.

CEO compensation in the largest firms dipped temporarily in 2015 and remains 940.9 percent above its 1978 level. This growth in CEO compensation far exceeded the growth of the stock market, which grew forty-two percent less (up 542.9 percent).

Wages rising faster than the rate of inflation should be the norm in the American economy and should occur all the time, without fanfare and self-congratulation from employers. That wage increases are newsworthy even while unemployment is below five percent is quite telling. Even at such a low unemployment rate, all the power in the employment relationship still rests with employers.

In 2015, CEOs in America’s largest firms made an average of $15.5 million—276 times the annual average pay of the typical worker. While the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio is down from 302-to-1 in 2014, the drop reflects a dip in the stock market, meaning CEO pay will rise once the stock market resumes. And the fact that CEO pay is growing a lot faster than profits, the pay of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, and the wages of college graduates means that CEOs are getting more because of their power, not because they are more productive, or have special talent, or more education.

Trump’s latest take on trade is a scam. He claims to be offering a path for workers, but is actually just offering mostly empty boxes on trade. What exactly is he trying to accomplish with renegotiated trade deals? And if his so keen to help working people, why does he then steer the discussion back toward the traditional corporate agenda of tax cuts for corporations and the rich? Some pro-worker, anti-elite populist Trump is.

From time to time researchers have raised technical measurement issues with our research showing that the compensation of a typical worker has diverged from overall productivity. The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk—a repeat player—has a new entry.

On Thursday, June 9, EPI President Lawrence Mishel, on behalf of the EPI Policy Center, addressed the Democratic National Convention Platform Drafting Committee about the need for a policy agenda that proactively addresses decades of wage stagnation.

As union membership has fallen over the last few decades, the share of income going to the top 10 percent has steadily increased. Union membership fell to 11.1 percent in 2014, where it remained in 2015.

EPI counts everyone who is covered by the FLSA and earning a salary between the old threshold and the new one as benefitting from the new rule. This is because they will know—most of them for the first time—that they are entitled to overtime pay. Until now, many of those 12.5 million employees were denied overtime pay based on the duties tests and treated as exempt, even though they were not clearly or legitimately exempt. At the very least, all of these workers have now had their rights strengthened and clarified.

An interesting story in the New York Times this morning looks at the effect that job losses from trade have had on people’s political views. It’s no surprise that voters on the losing end of globalization are disenchanted with the political mainstream, as the Times puts it. They have every right to be.

Introduction and executive summary
A renowned California court decision in 2014 declaring that teacher tenure laws violated the state constitution has highlighted the issue of tenure and its relationship to the allocation of teachers across schools (Vergara v.

Under the planned higher minimum wages and with various social supports (EITC and others), even the lowest-paid workers could attain a decent standard of living. That is a goal worthy of bold policy making like a higher minimum wage, which is essential to making sure that working people get a fair return on their work and enjoy shared prosperity. It’s about time.

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EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.